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Holocaust research the focus of Lemkin banquet
March 16, 2007
Holocaust scholar and former PLU history professor Christopher Browning discussed his most recent research on the Holocaust at the annual Raphael Lemkin Essay Awards Banquet last Tuesday.
The banquet also featured the work of student essayists, who submitted papers on topics related to the Holocaust. The winners, senior Meggan Johnson and junior Ethan Jennings, were recognized during the banquet program.
In his address, Browning discussed his latest project, which is a book focused on the survival strategy of Jewish slaves forced to work in Polish factory labor camps. It is a departure from his usual research, which tends to concentrate on the perpetrators of the Holocaust or how genocide becomes a state policy.
The research includes the testimony of those who survived the forced labor camps. It has been gathered over the past 60 years and ranges from survivors’ statements taken right after the end of the war in 1945 to Browning’s own interviews with survivors in recent years.
“When writing history from the memory of the survivors, it’s important to remember memories have layers,” Browning said.
Eyewitness testimony can be problematic because memories don’t convey exactly what happened, he cautioned. However, the testimony is giving him insight into the reality of everyday life and the tactics the slaves employed to survive.
The slaves were ingenious and adapted their survival tactics to their situation. They set up an internal black market to finance bribery operations. Through a two-fold survival tactic of bribery and labor, the slaves were able to make themselves indispensable to the German war effort and leverage improvements to their living conditions, Browning explained.
Additionally, Browning discussed the moral choices the slaves were forced to make, pointing out that the moral system was not based on universal morality but on a “rationing system.” Those imprisoned based their moral decisions on what they could do on the behalf of others, but tended to place the well being of their family, friends and neighbors before the good of the whole.
“Ordinary prisoners will have all the human failings,” Browning said. “I don’t think I have the right to expect them to tell me their stories of edification, uplift and redemption … simply tell the story, and that’s enough.”
Browning spent 25 years at PLU, during which time he developed a vigorous Holocaust Studies program and published the groundbreaking “Ordinary Men.” The book highlighted the “ordinariness” of the perpetrators of the Holocaust, who were nonetheless willing to kill. The work changed the way Holocaust scholars looked at their field.
Browning has served as an expert witness at various trials of accused Nazi criminals in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, and he authored seven books on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. In 1999, Browning was invited to give the “George Macauley Trevelyan Lectures” at Cambridge University, an honor achieved by very few American scholars.
Currently, Browning is the Frank Porter Graham Chair in History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
The banquet honors Raphael Lemkin, an author, international lawyer and Polish Jew who coined the term “genocide” in 1943. He derived the term from the Greek “genos” meaning race or clan and the Latin “cide” meaning killing. In 1948, he persuaded the United Nations to adopt the Genocide Convention, which outlaws the destruction of races and groups.
Students submit essays on genocide that reflect Lemkin’s ideals and concerns. Eight students submitted essays this year on topics that included the concept and definition of genocide, historical incidents of genocide and the prevention of genocide and enforcement of the genocide convention. A panel of faculty members judged the essays, and the winning essayists were recognized at the banquet.
First place was awarded to Johnson for her essay, “Fertility and Femininity during the Holocaust: The Experiences of Jewish Women.” According to Johnson, most Holocaust research draws on the experiences of Jewish men, but to accurately document the Jewish Holocaust experience, the perspective of women must be included.
Johnson argues the female experience of the Holocaust significantly differed from their male counterparts because women represented the societal roles of reproduction and femininity. Both factored heavily into the Nazis’ hatred of Jewish people, and Jewish women saw themselves as the embodiment of these roles.
This year marked Johnson’s fourth year as a top contender, a record in the 11-year history of the banquet. In her acceptance speech, Johnson explained the essay competition changed her life by influencing her academic and professional interests.
Second place was awarded to Jennings for his essay titled “The Popes, the Church, and Nazi Germany.” Jennings discusses the reactions and silent opposition of the two men who served as pope during the Nazi period. He argues the silence of the Vatican during the period contributed greatly to the Nazi state’s ability to commit genocide.
Silence implied consent and provided the Catholics serving in the German armed forces with moral absolution. Jennings concludes the actions of the popes and the response of the Catholic Church are deserving of both praise and condemnation, and that leaders and institutions should always be questioned regardless of how high their moral standing appears.
The essay competition is made possible by alumnus and Board of Regents member Don Morken ’60 and his colleague, Bruce Littman. To learn more about the competition, visit www.plu.edu/~history/lemkin.html.
Photo by Chris Hunt '07.
In his address, Browning discussed his latest project, which is a book focused on the survival strategy of Jewish slaves forced to work in Polish factory labor camps. It is a departure from his usual research, which tends to concentrate on the perpetrators of the Holocaust or how genocide becomes a state policy.
The research includes the testimony of those who survived the forced labor camps. It has been gathered over the past 60 years and ranges from survivors’ statements taken right after the end of the war in 1945 to Browning’s own interviews with survivors in recent years.
“When writing history from the memory of the survivors, it’s important to remember memories have layers,” Browning said.
Eyewitness testimony can be problematic because memories don’t convey exactly what happened, he cautioned. However, the testimony is giving him insight into the reality of everyday life and the tactics the slaves employed to survive.
The slaves were ingenious and adapted their survival tactics to their situation. They set up an internal black market to finance bribery operations. Through a two-fold survival tactic of bribery and labor, the slaves were able to make themselves indispensable to the German war effort and leverage improvements to their living conditions, Browning explained.
Additionally, Browning discussed the moral choices the slaves were forced to make, pointing out that the moral system was not based on universal morality but on a “rationing system.” Those imprisoned based their moral decisions on what they could do on the behalf of others, but tended to place the well being of their family, friends and neighbors before the good of the whole.
“Ordinary prisoners will have all the human failings,” Browning said. “I don’t think I have the right to expect them to tell me their stories of edification, uplift and redemption … simply tell the story, and that’s enough.”
Browning spent 25 years at PLU, during which time he developed a vigorous Holocaust Studies program and published the groundbreaking “Ordinary Men.” The book highlighted the “ordinariness” of the perpetrators of the Holocaust, who were nonetheless willing to kill. The work changed the way Holocaust scholars looked at their field.
Browning has served as an expert witness at various trials of accused Nazi criminals in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, and he authored seven books on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. In 1999, Browning was invited to give the “George Macauley Trevelyan Lectures” at Cambridge University, an honor achieved by very few American scholars.
Currently, Browning is the Frank Porter Graham Chair in History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
The banquet honors Raphael Lemkin, an author, international lawyer and Polish Jew who coined the term “genocide” in 1943. He derived the term from the Greek “genos” meaning race or clan and the Latin “cide” meaning killing. In 1948, he persuaded the United Nations to adopt the Genocide Convention, which outlaws the destruction of races and groups.
Students submit essays on genocide that reflect Lemkin’s ideals and concerns. Eight students submitted essays this year on topics that included the concept and definition of genocide, historical incidents of genocide and the prevention of genocide and enforcement of the genocide convention. A panel of faculty members judged the essays, and the winning essayists were recognized at the banquet.
First place was awarded to Johnson for her essay, “Fertility and Femininity during the Holocaust: The Experiences of Jewish Women.” According to Johnson, most Holocaust research draws on the experiences of Jewish men, but to accurately document the Jewish Holocaust experience, the perspective of women must be included.
Johnson argues the female experience of the Holocaust significantly differed from their male counterparts because women represented the societal roles of reproduction and femininity. Both factored heavily into the Nazis’ hatred of Jewish people, and Jewish women saw themselves as the embodiment of these roles.
This year marked Johnson’s fourth year as a top contender, a record in the 11-year history of the banquet. In her acceptance speech, Johnson explained the essay competition changed her life by influencing her academic and professional interests.
Second place was awarded to Jennings for his essay titled “The Popes, the Church, and Nazi Germany.” Jennings discusses the reactions and silent opposition of the two men who served as pope during the Nazi period. He argues the silence of the Vatican during the period contributed greatly to the Nazi state’s ability to commit genocide.
Silence implied consent and provided the Catholics serving in the German armed forces with moral absolution. Jennings concludes the actions of the popes and the response of the Catholic Church are deserving of both praise and condemnation, and that leaders and institutions should always be questioned regardless of how high their moral standing appears.
The essay competition is made possible by alumnus and Board of Regents member Don Morken ’60 and his colleague, Bruce Littman. To learn more about the competition, visit www.plu.edu/~history/lemkin.html.
Photo by Chris Hunt '07.